Press Releases

San Ramon, Calif.- August 10, 2011 – The pressure to deliver a great customer experience, deliver services efficiently and maximize profitability in the services sector has fueled the need for companies to harness and use data more wisely to remain agile and competitive. New benchmark research from Ventana Research finds that companies need to use business analytics to help them reach new markets, create new opportunities and make decisions that will guide them to success. 

The research findings offer fresh research-based information on these companies' attitudes toward business analytics. They confirm that business and IT in services organizations use a variety of analytics, but the research finds that they spend more than two thirds of their analytic time with data related activities like preparation, review and integration, Additionally, the research found that analytics were not always available for senior and mid-level executives, leaving them to make critical decisions regarding changes without a full view of their business. This alone should drive the desire to implement better methods and underlying technology to support the delivery of comprehensive analytics.

The research also found that for services firms, the most important categories of metrics are financial (identified by 64% of participants), cost (61%) and operational (56%). However, these priorities varied by line of business: Financial ranked first among those in Finance or Business, but sales ranked highest among those in marketing and sales areas. The research found that usability was the top priority for considering new technology investments along with providing capabilities to search and navigate through the analytics and resulting metrics and indicators.

This in-depth benchmark research on services organization use of business analytics, the latest from the leading business technology research firm, analyzed over 800 organizations around the world to assess the maturity and direction of their efforts. Ventana Research undertook this research to acquire real-world information about maturity, trends and best practices in how they use analytics and key indicators to optimize their business and IT processes and organizations. It explores how they do this now, how teams view the current processes and tools, plans they have to change or improve them, and the benefit they hope to gain by doing so.

"Over 40 percent of services organizations find a significant opportunity to improve their business analytics and their use to grow and retain customer relationships and drive improved profitability Our benchmark found that those organizations that are innovative were those that have dedicated teams and technology along with taking the data related activities seriously in their business analytics efforts," noted Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer at Ventana Research. "Our new research provides detail on how services organizations can immediately make improvement by comparing their efforts to those of our newly released benchmark.”

To view the webinar, visit: http://www.ventanaresearch.com/servawebinar

Those interested in learning more about this benchmark research can find additional information at http://www.ventanaresearch.com/serva/. The research was from over 822 organizations that spanned many services sectors including: entertainment, hospitality, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, utilities and wholesale. As a part of your registration you will receive insights and education from Ventana Research on using technology effectively in business. Ventana Research thanks those that participated in the benchmark and our media and association partners who helped make this vertical industry research a reality.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana OnDemand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost and risk.

Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; business and IT professionals worldwide are members of our community and benefit from Ventana Research’s insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe. Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Business Week’s Business Exchange.

To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations’ use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

Media: Copies of benchmark research report and interviews are available upon request.

Media Contact: 

Mendeil Bailey 

(925) 242-2412 

marketing@ventanaresearch.com